200th birthday of Lincoln, Darwin to be marked

Mark it off as chance or serendipity. But two of the great emancipators of the 19th century - Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin - were born on Feb. 12, 1809.

And as their duel 200th anniversaries approach, historians and scientists would probably agree that our world - whether as participants in the American scene, or as one species in a world of life - is inconceivable today without these two figures.

Both will get their birthday celebrations. At
Western Connecticut State University
, there will be two public lectures Thursday - one on Lincoln, the second on Darwin. The
University of Connecticut
will sponsor a statewide series of talks on the two figures, and there will be international Darwin Day celebrations throughout the Northeast.

"It is an interesting coincidence,'' said

Richard Halliburton
, professor of biology at WestConn, who will speak on Darwin's life, work and influence at the Science at Night lecture Thursday at 7 at the university's science building.

"You can think about the entire legacy of 19th century thought,'' said
Burton Peretti
, WestConn professor of history and non-Western culture at WestConn, who will speak Thursday at 2 p.m. on "Those Lincoln-Obama Comparisons'' in WestConn's Warner Hall.

Lincoln - the great emancipator of American slaves - is also the preserver of the Union and the great, defining voice of the values that created that union. Born poor, with only about a year of formal education, he was also one of the great writers of American prose.

He is in some ways one of the great mysteries of American life and one of the most tragic.

"He is probably the most studied, the most-written about, the most mythologized American president," Peretti said. "He's complicated.''

Darwin seems his opposite. He was an Englishman born into wealth that enabled him to complete his great work, "Origin of Species,'' without worries about earning a living. He died at home at the age of 73, a far cry from Lincoln's assassination.

But his life has a mystery as well. Although he attended college - first as a medical student, then a student of theology -the study of natural sciences was all but non-existent in the 1830s. He was, in many ways, self-taught.

"He knew nothing about genetics, which really shows how brilliant his work was,'' said

Darwin's theory of natural selection opened the world up to liberating possibilities. Rather than living in a static place, where things are the way they always have been, Darwin realized we live on a dynamic planet where things are always changing. Our modern study of all life sciences - biology, botany, zoology, ecology - have Darwin at their foundation.

"It is the unifying theory of biology,'' Halliburton said.

Contosta, who will speak at UConn, said despite the disparity of their backgrounds, Lincoln and Darwin had some things in common. Both were sons of domineering fathers. Both suffered from bouts of depression. Both spent their early 20s escaping from the destiny laid out for them - Lincoln worked a variety of odd jobs rather that settle down as a farmer, Darwin spent five years on the HMS Beagle, exploring the plants and animals of the world rather than becoming a clergyman.

"Both men were saved from being boxed in by the accepted truths of the day,'' Contosta said.

And both men, rather than being changed by a brilliant shaft of insight, were essentially plodders, who achieved success by hard work. Halliburton said patience was one of Darwin's great strengths.

"He would study something as long as it took to understand it,'' Halliburton said. "He'd spend a year studying earthworms to understand how they affected the soil.''

There are also interesting cross-references in their lives, said
Kent Holsinger
, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UConn. Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was an outspoken anti-slavery advocate in England.

"And Lincoln played a very important role in the study of science in America,'' Holsinger said. "In 1863, just after the Battle of Gettysburg, he signed a bill creating the
National Academy of Science
.'' That academy now draws on the research ability of about 500 of the best scientists in the U.S.

And both men were willing to let their ideas evolve.

"In his early career, Lincoln did not advocate abolition,'' Peretti said. "When he switched, and became the Great Abolitionist, it was largely for military reasons.'' But by his second Inaugural address, Peretti said, Lincoln - basically an agnostic - spoke in almost mystic terms of divine justice and forgiveness.

Finally, Contosta said, modern genetics - a child of Darwinian thought - also loop back to Lincoln.

"DNA proves it," he said. "We are all the same. Lincoln and Darwin close the circle."